1. Background to the 1970s in South Africa
This background section is a short summary of events in South Africa in the decades preceding the 1970s. It is not part of your Grade 12 curriculum, but simply serves to refresh your memory from what you learnt in Grade 9.
Apartheid Signage. 'The best land, resources, facilities and amenities were reserved for whites'. This particular photograph was taken towards the end of the Apartheid regime in 1989 at a "Open the Beaches " protest in Cape Town. Photograph by Guy Tillim, South Photographs©.
Apartheid in South Africa
The National Party had come to power in 1948 and begun governed the country according to apartheid laws. Apartheid literally means ‘apartness’. It was an inhuman policy designed to keep white South Africans separate and to oppress black South Africans.
People can be divided into many different kinds of groups, for example, males and females, rich and poor, young and old, and so on. Apartheid divided South Africans into groups according to skin colour. Apartheid was based on racism and built on the prejudice that white people were superior to everyone else.
According to the Population Registration Act of 1950, every person had to be classified and registered as White, Coloured, Indian/Asiatic or 'Native'. 'Native' was later labelled 'Bantu' and still later 'Black' by the apartheid government.
The National Party, which defined and refined the naming process, were mostly Afrikaans-speaking 'white' South Africans and the word 'African' was not used by them for black Africans. African translates into Afrikaans as Afrikaner. Afrikaans-speaking and English- speaking whites were classified as ‘White’.
The use of capital letters for each group reinforced the government's ideology - that 'race groups' are rigid and fixed.
The whites-only government made the laws and held all the positions of power. Apartheid laws affected every detail of the lives of all South Africans. Laws controlled who had power, who could vote, where people lived, worked and were educated. The best land, resources, facilities and amenities were reserved for whites. Laws were brutally implemented.
White people’s lives became better, while black people experienced more and more hardship. The state empowered whites economically, while black people were deliberately denied access to wealth creation.
Activity for the classroom:
A class debate/discussion on Naming groups of people (click here to see suggested content for this discussion-under construction)
Not all whites supported apartheid, and not all black people actively resisted it. Some white people participated actively in the struggle against apartheid, while some black people co-operated with the apartheid state, usually in exchange for financial reward.
Apartheid government Prime Ministers were:
D.F.Malan 1948-1954
J.G.Strijdom 1954-1958
H.F.Verwoerd 1958-1966
B.J.Vorster 1966-1978
The government changed in constitution from 1979 under the next Prime Minister, P.W. Botha. The head of government was now called the President:
P.W.Botha 1978-1989
F.W.de Klerk 1989-1994
State repression always went hand in hand with resistance. As early as 1902, a political organization called the APO was founded and demanded rights for ‘coloured’ people. The ANC or African National Congress was formed in 1912. The South African Indian Congress was formed in 1923 to struggle for Indian rights. These organisations peacefully resisted the laws that discriminated against all black people. Resistance took the form of peaceful protests like boycotts, petitions and strikes. The nature of resistance was passive and non-violent up until the early 1960s.
South Africa’s population was divided up in 1948 as follows:
69% African
21% White
8 % Coloured
2 % Indian
Total population: 11,415,945
What is racism?
The apartheid system and the division of the population was built on racism. Racism is the false idea that certain groups of people are better than others. Racists divide the human race into different ‘race groups’ and believe that it is acceptable to exclude or dominate ‘inferior groups’ on the grounds of their ‘race’.
Most people take it for granted that all humankind can be divided into ‘races’, but the concept of ‘human races’ is not scientific. Physical features like skin colour, hair type and facial shape do not relate to how people think or behave.
Clearly, not all people look the same. Some are tall and others are short. Our skin colours and hair textures are different, and we have different facial features. Scientists say these differences developed through evolutionary changes about 150 000 years ago. People developed differently according to the environments they lived in. So, for example, people living in parts of the world where it is hot developed darker skins to protect them from the rays of the sun. People living in colder climates have short, stout bodies to keep in heat and pale skins, as there is less sunlight.
The genes or chemical codes in the nucleus of all living things determine the colour of our skin. The genes that determine skin colour are as important as the genes that determine the size of our toes.
Many people argue that the word ‘race’ should no longer be used for the following reasons:
1) Most scientists today would say that there is no such thing as race.
2) The misuse of the term ‘race’ to classify people has gone hand in hand with disregard for human rights. This has resulted in cruel behaviour towards those regarded as 'inferior'.
These racial categories that were used to label us in the apartheid era have in many ways become part of our identities and how we think about ourselves. And because the laws that existed were applied according to these categories, it is impossible to write a history of South Africa without using racial labels.
The United Nations Organisation was formed at the end of the Second World War. The United Nations Declaration of Human Rights confirms:
The inherent dignity and worth of the human person
The equal rights all members of the human family
That we should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.
The National Party Apartheid Government came to power in the same year that the United Nations adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). Apartheid laws ignored every one of the rights recognised in this Declaration. The South African government did not sign the UDHR. The United Nations declared Apartheid as a ‘crime against humanity’.
In 1957, a Declaration of Conscience was issued by more than 100 leaders from every continent. The Declaration was an appeal to South Africa to bring its policies into line with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights adopted by the General Assembly of the United Nations.
The Declaration began the slow process of mobilising world sentiment against apartheid. South African democrats, of all colours, felt supported and many white racists learned for the first time how isolated they were.
You can read more about the international struggle against apartheid in the section on South Africa in the 1980s.
Resistance to apartheid in the 1950’s
The majority of South Africans experienced apartheid as a negative, harsh, unjust system. The National Party government forbade resistance to its laws.
Many people have used non-violence in South Africa and in other countries to demonstrate their demand for change. The life and work of Mahatma Gandhi who lived in South Africa between 1893 and 1914 have inspired many non-violent movements, including the Civil Rights Movement in the United States.
To read more about the life and times of Gandhi in South Africa click here
In the 1950s, people continued to resist, but still without using violence. Protests were met with state repression - banning, arrests, stricter laws and police violence.
The 4-in-1 Congress - June 26, 1955. The Congress of the People meet at the Kliptown football ground with 3,000 delegates. Photograph by Drum photographer © Baileys Archive
Feature: The Freedom Charter
In 1955, an important document called The Freedom Charter was agreed upon at the Congress of the People in Kliptown, Soweto. The Congress of the People was a joint anti-apartheid movement including; the African National Congress, the (white) Congress of Democrats, the Coloured People's Congress, and the South African Indian Congress. In the following year many members of the Alliance were arrested and charged with treason.
The policies set out in the Charter included a demand for a multi-racial, democratically elected government. Africanist members of the ANC rejected the Freedom Charter and broke away to form the Pan Africanist Congress (PAC) in 1959.
Resistance in the 1960s
The Sharpeville Massacre
By 1958 nearly one and a half million Africans were being convicted under the pass laws every year. By 1960, two of the political organisations resisting apartheid, the ANC and the PAC, organised anti-pass campaigns. The PAC organised a demonstration on 21 March 1960.
On 21 March 1960, thousands of people gathered outside the police station in Sharpeville (near Vereeniging), offering themselves up for arrest for not carrying their pass books.The police opened fire on the crowd, and at the end of the day, 69 people were dead and nearly 200 wounded. Most of those killed had been shot in the back as they tried to flee. The massacre made international headlines.
Extra reading: 30 years ago this year (2008) the first PAC leader, Robert Sobukwe, died. Learn about the man and his involvement in the events at Sharpeville, click here
Philip Kgosana and the march to Cape Town
After the Sharpeville massacre, tensions began mounting in the Cape Town African townships of Nyanga and Langa.
Philip Kgosana, a leader of the PAC in Cape Town, was 23 years old when he lead a march of 30 000 people from Langa to the city centre of Cape Town on 30 March, 1960 (9 days after the Sharpeville massacre). In Cape Town, he met with the police chief on behalf of the marchers. The police chief promised to set up a meeting between Kgosana and the Minister of Justice, on condition that the marchers returned home. Philip Kgosana convinced the crowd to walk back home. When he arrived for the promised meeting with the Minister of Justice the following day, he was arrested. At the end of 1960, he was allowed out on temporary bail to visit his family in the Transvaal for Christmas. He used this opportunity to flee the country and began a life in exile.
The banning of the ANC and PAC and the formation of Umkhonto weSizwe and Poqo
The government responded to the 1960 anti-pass protests by banning the ANC and PAC.
Many people began to feel it was useless for the ANC and PAC to continue using non-violence against a government that responded with violent attacks on unarmed people.
As a result of the governments banning order, the ANC established an underground armed movement known as Umkhonto weSizwe (MK) or the Spear of the Nation, which was led by Nelson Mandela. Between 1961 and 1963, MK attacked over 200 non-civilian targets throughout South Africa. The targets included government buildings and other property, like electricity pylons. People were not initially attacked.
In August 1962, Nelson Mandela was captured by the police. In June 1963, other leaders of Umkhonto weSizwe, including Walter Sisulu, Govan Mbeki, Raymond Mhlaba and Ahmed Kathrada were arrested in Rivonia, Johannesburg. They were charged and tried in the famous Rivonia Trial. They were sentenced to life imprisonment in June 1964.
The PAC formed an armed wing called Poqo. They are less well-known today but also played an important role in SA history.
Robert Sobukwe was the founding president of the Pan Africanist Congress. Some of his ideas later inspired Steve Biko and the Black Consiousness Movement.
Sobukwe was put on trial for his role in the anti-pass campaign and sentenced to three years in prison in Pretoria. After completing his three-year sentence, Sobukwe was detained by a special Act of Parliament called the ‘Sobukwe Clause’, and transferred to Robben Island. The 'Sobukwe Clause' was approved annually. On the Island, he was completely isolated from the other political prisoners. After Sobukwe's release from the Island, he was sent to Kimberley, a place where he had never lived before, and kept under house arrest until his death in 1978.